There’s absolutely nothing better than Thanksgiving— the warm feeling of dining with our loud-mouthed families, gorging on oven-fresh turkey, entirely not caring that in a matter of seconds we’ll be too full too move. After weeks of clobbering workloads, this sounds just fantastic---what we could all use and really need. Thanksgiving forces us to leave behind lonesome library hours for face-to-face interaction. From a Career Services stand-point, these animated conversations benefit us more than we know.
We all have those family members and friends that we only see during the holidays, just once or twice a year. After having the cliché freak-out that we’ve grown up so fast, they love asking about our lives—especially our real-world lives. Chances are, we’ll be talking about, rehashing, repeating, and re-repeating our career interests, job-search progress, and aspirations for the future. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, our Thanksgiving will be filled-to-the-brim with career chatter.
And why not take advantage of the career tips and networking opportunities Thanksgiving offers? Bask in the glory of being the night’s center-of-attention and roll with it. This is a time to openly and candidly talk about your aspirations, concerns, stresses, goals, roadblocks— really anything—in a non-judgmental and entirely supportive setting.
Of course, there’s always the consequence of too much too fast. If you’re tired of fielding questions about your career saga, redirect the focus a bit. See this as an opportunity to gather information from your family questioners, who definitely have some tidbits about this daunting thing called real-life. If the time calls for it, you might even ask your Thanksgiving attendees about their own career-lives—the current affairs of their own industry and how they landed that coveted first job. Even if they’re not in your field, they might have connections to field-relevant professionals, or know of some potential opportunities.
Thanksgiving is also a chance to set the stage for any career development on-the-agenda for winter break. In contrast to the mad-dash of Thanksgiving, winter break offers us a long expanse of time to arrange informational interviews, mingle with local professionals, and put our networking skills to good use. If we find a spare moment during the Thanksgiving recess, why not reach out to a few professionals to check in, reinforce our interest, and arrange a meeting for the month to come? It’s never too early to get your name etched into an employer’s busy calendar.
It goes to show that career-development is truly an everywhere, anywhere process. The most candid and vibrant career chatter springs alive when we’re in an atmosphere of relaxation and comfort. And besides, career talk is always most successful over a slice of pumpkin pie.
